Of Black Ink & Feathers

Prologue

Four Months Ago...

The city of Grand Diirma sat peacefully in the autumn afternoon. Like all grand cities, Grand Diirma was contained within towering, stone walls that marked its boundaries and held a single exit through the church. Countless halls and rooms were crafted within the city walls where the priests of the Order managed all aspects of society. Today, within one such room, a collection of priests were kneeling in prayer.

Basking in the sunlight that peered through the glassless windows, the priests ignored all distractions: the dust drifting amidst the afternoon air; the buzzing flies that circled above their heads; and the smell of the priest, Miles, who had, once again, forgotten to bathe. 

Then, suddenly, an eruption of harrowing shrieks broke the serenity. A murmur of concern echoed as the priests shuffled in confusion. Two other priests, both cloaked in red smocks, raced into the room with wild eyes. They huffed between half-words and frenzied hand gestures.

"Craw!" one roared. "They-they-they're coming this way! They're marching!"

"A roost?" Edith interjected as she jumped to her feet; the sunlight bounced from her bald scalp as she moved.

Before the priest could answer, a loud procession of knocks and screamed pleas rumbled at the doors to the city. The cascade of voices continued between the desperate, hammering fists to become a deafening symphony of panic that rang through the church, echoing off the thick rock. A heavy sense of dread washed over the room as the priests listened on baited breath.

Edith was the first to pull her attention away, looking to the red priests. "Let them in," she demanded.

"But the craw-"

"Let them in!" she demanded again.

The priests gave a jerked nod and raced towards the inner doors, repeating Edith's demand to their fellow priests who passed them in the halls.

Edith turned back towards the stunned priests surrounding her. As leader of the Grand Diirma church, Edith remained poised despite the weight born from such a travesty.

"Danger does not always wait for the dark," Edith stated. Her face was stern and unyielding. "My friends, be ready. Azure, receive the civilians and get them through the city walls. Xanthous, prepare the way out; I don't care if all these tables must be tossed aside to do so. Cardinal, prepare to close the doors. The second you see a craw enter into the market square, close them. I will be on the walkway to signal the cleansing. May the light guide you."

At her command, the entire church clicked into motion. Xanthous members heaved tables and benches against the walls, eliminating the barriers that prevented passage. Civilians, panicked and desperate, started to pour into the church entrance as azure members coaxed them through the wall innards and out of the city peacefully. Cardinal members scattered around the doors to the city, ready to seal the city. One cardinal member held onto the entrance lever while two others, donned with spy glasses, scouted the market square boundaries. The entire squad held their breaths for the first sighting of a craw.

The rest of the cardinal members stood beside Edith who finally crested the city wall. Her chest heaved from the exertion, but she would not be distracted from the catastrophe.

Peering through her spyglass, she could see an overwhelming wave of black, feathered monsters scrambling towards the city exit. Around them, houses shook and dust gusted as unsteady buildings crumbled. At the single city exit - the inner doors - she saw a throng of people crowding the threshold, with more citizens hurrying to join the crowd.

'What curse has the Light given us today?' Edith thought despairingly, but her face dared not show any sign of grimace as she pulled her eye from the glass.

"What are we to do?" one of her underlings sobbed.

"We will burn away the darkness. Prepare the cauldron above the gates," she ordered and pocketed her spyglass.

Edith made her way on the walkway, tracing the city's outline swiftly, until she arrived directly above the inner doors where a massive, iron cauldron sat on a column built into the inner city side of the wall. One member was examining the black, viscous liquid in the cauldron while another guarded its trigger lever. As Edith stood against the walkway lip, she could see the crowd of people directly below, huddled by the doors.

"Wait," Edith warned as she pulled out her spyglass again.

The grim army of craw had marched past the residence district and was nearly through the local trade district. The crowd of citizens had diminished considerably; only a handful of people remained inside the city by the time the first craw entered into the merchant district and a loud whistle sounded. The deep clanking of the doors followed.

Edith was urged by her charges to withdraw her spyglass, but she refused. With a heavy heart, she peered through the glass to watch the horror of escaping citizens as they realised the city was sealing them inside. Some priests had attempted to pull the stragglers inward, but for several, it was not enough; cracking bones and feverish screams filled the air as those who did not clear the threshold were crushed between the metal doors.

Yet, those still able crowded the sealed doors, ignoring the blood and gore. They banged hopelessly, sobbing, as the dark army approached. Even so, when the craw met the citizens trapped at the gates, Edith did not hesitate.

"Now!"

A lit torch was thrown into cauldron, setting the liquid ablaze. With the lever jerked forward, the cauldron tilted on its axis to drop the flaming contents forward, into the inner city. Within seconds, the horde of craw and their victims were dosed in a thick layer of fire.

With time, the screeching of the craw mutated  into a fizzling howl as the first wave of dark birds melted. Even so, the remaining dark birds maintained their march. Wave after wave, they raced to their death. Members around Edith bent down, palming their ears to deafen the sound. Edith did not; instead, she endured their suffering to witness the demise of the civilians she had failed. Their bodies wrenched in pain and betrayal to become statues layered in hardened pumice and ash, forming new monuments to the horrors of her failed ministry.

Thus began a tale of black ink and feathers.